The main processing units include reactors, distillation columns, extraction columns, heat exchangers,
pumps and separators. Because detailed information on the kinetics was not available, a simple conversion reactor
model with 97% and 95% oil conversion to FAME was used to describe the acidic and alkaline transesterification
reactions, respectively. It was assumed that the reactor was a continuous, stirred tank reactor and the
fill factor of the reactor (the ratio of reaction to reactor volumes) was set at 0.5. As has been observed in our
laboratory, the theoretical reaction intermediates, diacylglycerols and monoacylglycerols, exist only in the
early stages of the reaction, because of high methanol to oil ratios. Thus it was not appropriate to consider these
intermediates in this work